Are Personal Curated Clothing Boxes Worth It?

I decided to do a deep dive into several different personally curated clothing boxes to see if they were worth it! Come see what I got and read my thoughts about the companies that provide these services.

Are Personal Curated Clothing Boxes Worth It?

You might already have a few preconceived notions about getting sent online curated clothing boxes. Perhaps you think everything in them in too expensive or would never be worth it. Or maybe you wonder if they would really be able to figure out your style and size.

Perhaps you already order a curated clothing box regularly and love it. Either way, I hope that today’s blog post will be helpful for you!

This is not a sponsored post. I ordered all of these curated clothing boxes with my own money to test them out and see which ones really held up to a challenge. I don’t want this post to be sponsored so that I can feel like I can share all of my real, honest thoughts with you!

Disclaimer: I have ordered from Stitch Fix before so I did have an idea of how personally curated clothing boxes work before I wrote this blog post. I had never used any of the other companies for clothing before.

So here’s a couple of things you should know about me before you start asking yourself…why on earth would I even consider ordering a box of clothing that I’d never seen before online?

1. I hate clothes shopping. Nothing ever seems to fit right and I don’t have time to try things on at the store so I end up having to buy them, try them on at home, and then take them back when I go to town. It’s a painful process.
2. I don’t live by any quality clothing stores. It’s 65 miles to the nearest Target…not that their clothing is the definition of quality. :p
3. I don’t like to have cheap items in my closet. I prefer to have a smaller amount of things that fit me very well and that I enjoy wearing.
4. I don’t live by any thrift stores and rarely ever get to one when I go to town. And when I do get to one, to find a piece of clothing that fits me and that doesn’t smell like a bottle of perfume landed on it (I have scent issues) is like finding gold. It happens, but not often.

Ok, now that we’ve cleared that up I can move on!

I ordered from Stitch Fix last year because I needed a few more pieces for my wardrobe. I was pretty happy with how things fit and the quality of the items so I’ve ordered a few boxes from them since then. I’ll talk more about them though when I get to them! However, with that in mind, I wanted to try some of the other curated clothing box companies that I had heard of and see if they might be worth it, or if they would offer a better selection or variety.

This blog post is going to get LONG so settle in and come along for the ride as I dive into each of the companies that I ordered from to test!

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If you want to see a video of my “unboxing” of all of the boxes, just click below! If you don’t see the video here you can go over HERE to YouTube to watch it.

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Wantable

With Wantable, you have the choice to pick from different “Edits” as they call them. A Style Edit, an Active Edit, a Sleep & Body Edit, and a Men’s Edit. To keep it consistent with the other boxes I was trying, I chose the Style Edit.

To get started, you select your sizes and preferences and then pay a $20 “Styling Fee”. This fee is applied to any purchase you want to make.

The next step is to go through the “Stream” and request or decline items that you may or may not want in your box. It took about 24 hours between when I ordered a box for them to put it together and send it out. The box contains 7 items and if you keep 5 or more items you also receive a 20% discount on your purchase.

Once you’ve made your selections, you “checkout” online and then send all of the things you don’t want back to Wantable within 5 days in a prepaid bag that they include in the box.

What I Liked:

I was able to request a pair of jeans that I was quite sure would fit and that I had been looking for and couldn’t find elsewhere. They did include those in the box and I ended up keeping them.

I also liked that you didn’t have to keep all of items in the box to get the discount.

What I Disliked:

The styles and sizes selected. (SO BAGGY!)

The prices.

You have to “enroll” in a subscription. It was easy to cancel, however, I prefer just to get a box when I really want one, not all the time.

My Thoughts on Wantable:

Honestly, the “Stream” scared me because there were very few items in it that I felt like I would like. I figured I would give them the benefit of the doubt since you do add in info about your style but it turned out that my fears were warranted. The only thing I even remotely liked in my box was the jeans that I selected.

After I got the box I immediately wished I had gotten either the Body or the Active boxes instead. I felt like I might have benefitted more from the items in those versus the “Styles” since the style of clothing in my box wasn’t anything that I would wear.

I did have fun feeling like I was wearing a crocheted bag. LOL

You can check out Wantable for yourself HERE.

Nordstrom Trunk Club – Closed

Nordstrom Trunk Club sends on demand “trunk” boxes with 10 items of clothing in them. You also have the option to select up to 3 more items to add to your box at checkout for accessories, undergarments, and body products.

To get started you select your sizes and then pay a $25 “Styling Fee”. This fee is applied to any purchase that you make from your box and it is waived entirely for Nordstrom Card holders.

To help your stylist, you can do “Swipes” to show them the styles you like and you can also pics of styles you like also.

It took about 24 hours for the stylist to put together my box and get it sent out.

Once you receive the box you have 5 days to try on the clothes and send what you don’t like back. You also do an online checkout like Wantable, although there is no discount for the number of items kept. The box comes with a prepaid FedEx return label to put back on the box and you can schedule a pick up when you are ready to return in case you don’t live by a FedEx dropoff.

I think you can select a “Theme Trunk” (Fall Theme, Winter Theme, Active Theme, etc). However, for this experiment, I just went with the basic box.

What I Liked:

I liked that I could select other items for my box that weren’t clothing. I ended up adding 2 sports bras and a pair of sunglasses to try with my clothes.

I liked the amount of clothing in the box. More variety to pick from.

Boxes are on demand, no subscription.

What I Disliked:

The styles weren’t anywhere close to my style. (ei: see what I called the “cheetah print prairie dress” above.)

They did not follow the pricing guidelines I asked them to follow and I was sent some very pricy items.

One of the items I got was clearly worn or tried on and returned. It smelled and had hair on it.

I was missing an item from my box and received a random pair of jeans that weren’t my size. I was able to contact them to make it right so they didn’t charge me for either item but it was still extra work.

My Thoughts on Nordstrom Trunk Club:

I had heard quite a bit about the Trunk Club so I was excited to try it and I was not at all impressed. The clothing styles were nothing I would wear and fairly uncomfortable. (Or maybe at this point I was just tired of all the baggy crop top sweaters…..) 

Each item was in a plastic bag and I very much disliked all the waste because there was no way I could put the items back in the bags. I was also very unhappy that they didn’t follow my pricing guidelines. I felt like they hoped I would just like the expensive dress so much that I would pay for it no matter what. (They haven’t met me….:) )

I was already disappointed that the box was not a fit for me at all and then I realized the one sweater had clearly been worn and that really turned me off. If I wanted used clothes I can go to the thrift store, but I’m not going to pay new prices for that.

The one redeeming quality about this box was the “extras”. While I didn’t keep the sunglasses, I really appreciated being able to try the sports bras and I ended up keeping both of them. I also kept the pair of basic leggings that was in my box because I really needed a pair for under dresses and these fit me and were comfortable.

Nordstrom Trunk Club Has Closed Down

Amazon Personal Shopper

Amazon Personal Shopper is the least expensive way to choose a personal stylist on this experiment blog post. A styling costs $4.99. You can set up your sizes and some details about your style. You can also select the pricing you want or make requests.

Once the stylist has selected some styles for you, they will send you an email showing you what they recommend with a few styles selected.

You can review the recommendations, select up to 6 items for them to send to you, and make any changes to sizes or colors that you feel are necessary.

Once you receive the items you have 7 days to try them on and send back anything that you don’t like.

What I Liked:

Selections were picked right away.

I could change the colors or sizes to what I wanted or needed.

What I Disliked:

The selections didn’t feel very tailored to my style.

The price range was not what I selected.

The items that I received were not the right sizes that I selected. See the above pic of the pants I got that were 4 sizes too big.

Some items “selected for me” were not even in stock when I went to order, even though I placed my order right away after they picked the styles.

Was a subscription service I had to cancel.

I had to find a UPS dropoff because that’s what the return label was for.

My Thoughts on Amazon Personal Shopper:

There was very little of selecting my styles before my styling was complete so that worried me right off the bat. Then the selection I was sent to pick from definitely was not my favorites and I wasn’t exactly excited. But sometimes things look so different on than they do online so I was willing to give it a try.

I had selected the “cheapest” category of clothing to try (>$25) and I didn’t get anything in that price range. Plus some of the clothing wasn’t even the size that I selected. (Some was several sizes too big and some was way too small.) I didn’t keep anything at all from this box and didn’t really feel like anything in it was high quality or something I’d even consider keeping.

You can check out Amazon Personal Shopper HERE.

Stitch Fix

Stitch Fix was the only curated clothing box on this list that I had tried before. I’ll limit my thoughts on this review to just this box since I only reviewed a single box of the other services.

With Stitch Fix, you can select to get a one time box or a subscription service. You take a rather lengthy quiz so that they can find out more about your measurements and styles.

Even after you do the initial quiz, you can like or dislike items to further tailor your style and preferences. You can also leave a note when you order your box if there are any items that you’d like to request. The styling fee is $20 and goes towards your purchase.

After you’ve done this and selected a date for your box to arrive, the stylist will work on your selection. After a few days, they will email you with a “pre-selection” for you to go through as you can see in the picture above. You can either dislike the item and it will not go in your box or you can say yes to the item and the stylist will include it in your box.

You do not need to select 5 styles out of what they send you, just pick the things you like and your stylist will choose other items for the rest of your box.

They will send a total of 5 items and you have a few days to try everything on and make your selections. If you decide to keep everything in your box, they will offer a 25% off discount.

What I Liked:

The clothes all fit me and fit very well.

I really liked most of the styles and they were all comfy and seemed wearable for every day rather than things I might not wear much.

What I Disliked:

The prices are a little higher than what I would like.

My Thoughts on Stitch Fix:

I originally tried Stitch Fix after getting a credit from another member. You get $25 credit when you join under a link like this and that makes the first box styling fee free so I figured there was nothing to lose! Since then, I’ve found many great, practical pieces I’ve added to my closet.

I had a hard time picking what to keep from my box because I almost liked all of it! Everything fit so well, the only thing I didn’t care for was the style of the black sweater but I will admit that it did fit well. I ended up keeping the leggings and the 2 cardigans that I had “pre-selected” because I needed some and they were so nice!

This isn’t something you’d know on the first box but since I’ve ordered a few I can tell you that if you didn’t like your stylist (or the selections they chose) you can pick a new stylist for your next box. I have done this in the past after receiving a box with nothing I could use.

You can check out Stitch Fix and get $25 credit here.

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I know this ended up being a super long blog post but I wanted to try and incorporate as many details as possible! I hope that this helps you make an informed decision if you’ve ever considered any of these curated clothing boxes!

Do you have another product or service you want me to try? Just let me know!

Have you ever tried any of these curated clothing boxes?